If you liked Oscar-winner Anora, get ready to love Ponyboi.
Out is proud to exclusively debut the trailer for Esteban Arango and River Gallo's new film Ponyboi, about an intersex sex worker in New Jersey (played by Gallo, who also wrote the film), who goes on the run from the mob while trying to find his place in his community and world.
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The official synopsis describes the movie as "unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past."
Ponyboi was written by Gallo, directed by Arango, and also stars Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett, and Indya Moore.
In the trailer, we get glances of O'Brien's sleazy pimp character pressuring Ponyboi to transition, "I think you make a beautiful woman," he says, "good for business too."
We also get to see a glimpse of Murray Bartlett's mysterious and handsome cowboy character. I want to get to know you, I like that you're different," he tells Ponyboi. But it's clearly Gallo who steals the show.
Out reviewer Mey Rude praised the film when it premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, especially the acting, and pointed to Gallo's performance as one "the Academy needs to pay attention to this year."
Gallo spoke with Out about the film's message and why intersex stories are more important now than ever before.
"For me, I had a teacher one time in theater school tell me, 'When making a piece of theater, you have to tell the audience something that they don't know,' and I was just so aware of wanting to share a story that, in some ways, is tragic, but it's more like overcoming some huge shit and a hero's journey," Gallo says.
"For there to be that victory at the end was just so important for me as a storyteller, but also as a queer person, as a trans person, intersex person," they continue. "it just felt necessary to imbue the movie with a sense of hope and a sense of transcendence so that queer people can know that we are so much more than our traumas, so much more than the adversary that we experience."
Gallo is also proud to have a movie that tells an intersex story from an intersex perspective coming out when the government is attacking trans rights and using the excuse of what they call the "biological reality" of there only being two sexes.
"I mean, there couldn't be a better time for an intersex movie like this because the reality is, the right is pushing this agenda of a false idea of gender and of sex," they say. "The reality is there aren't just two sexes and there aren't just two genders. Intersex people exist, and not only do intersex people exist, but intersex people represent almost 2 percent of the population, which is actually higher than the amount of trans people, percentage wise."
"We really have to consider the reality of, and by the way, all these anti-trans bills all have loopholes that allow for doctors to continue to perform these medically unnecessary surgeries to normalize intersex kids," they add, "Republicans know what they're doing."
"I think it's up to us, up to the queer community, to embolden and empower ourselves and to uplift intersex people so that we realize that these anti-trans bills are actually also anti-intersex, and that intersex rights and trans rights are actually one and the same rights. It's a battle of autonomy, but it's not something we're talking about," Gallo adds. "I really do think that the movie has this beautiful intersection of conversations about what it means to be trans and what it means to be intersex, what it means to just question your identity in general, and what it means to know that we all have choice in what we decide to do with our bodies. Even if that choice was taken away from us when we were younger or by a politician or by a government, we all actually do have autonomy over our bodies, and that's a very sacred ownership."
"I really hope that Fox News talks about the movie because I think that'd be a marker of success," they say. "The reality is that people are spewing misinformation and false ideas that there's only two sexes and intersex people exist, trans people exist and if we're to talk about biology, since that's something that they really throw around in there, biologically, people are born intersex, period."
Watch the exclusive premiere of the Ponyboi trailer below. For its premiere dates, tickets, and more information, visit the film's official website.
